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littlesparkvt (2707383) writes "As early as 2014 NASA will launch their Sun Jammer Solar Sail aboard Elon Musks, SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The Sail, using the pressure of sunlight, will be a propellant-free transport, hovering and exploration vehicle."Link to Original Source

coondoggie writes "The FBI today said it broke up what it called one of the largest credit card, cyber-fraud schemes in its history — a $200M scam that created more than 7,000 false identities and tens of thousands of fake credit cards. The FBI said it arrested 13 people involved in the scam the agency said maintained more than 1,800 "drop addresses," located across the country including houses, apartments, and post office boxes, which they used as the mailing addresses of the false identities."Link to Original Source

mkortsha (2774091) writes "Researchers at The University of California, San Francisco have discovered a new anatomical feature of the human spine. Using micro-CT imaging technology the scientists were able to clearly image the presence of a secondary endplate layer in some spinal specimens. The double layer appears to provide additional support to the spinal endplate, which may help protect the vertebral body in case of endplate damage."Link to Original Source

Xemu writes "Humans can locate an odour source thanks to a feature called stereo sniffing, says researchers in an article just published in Nature Communications. To further enhance odorant location capabilties, mammals combine serial sampling with bilateral nasal cues. Much like your average teenager in a dark basement would locate that smelly sock. Blocking one nostril makes it harder."Link to Original Source

TVmisGuided writes "A bill introduced into the Oregon State Senate by Floyd Prozanski (D-4th) would ban private ownership or operation of "drones" in that state. The trouble, as pointed out by the Roswell Flight Test Crew, is that the bill's definition of "drone" is so broad and vague that it actually could ban all radio-controlled flying in that state. Even OWNING "an unmanned flying machine that is capable of [among other things] capturing images of objects or people on the ground” would be a Class B misdemeanor, on a par with stealing $50 in merchandise or possessing a switchblade. Actually flying one bumps it up to a Class A misdemeanor, equivalent to drunk driving or unlicensed carriage of a concealed firearm. Text of the bill here (in PDF)."Link to Original Source

An anonymous reader writes "The WSJ reports that OUYA, the $100 Android-based gaming console, will reach retail availability in June. The makers have partnered with Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, and Target for distributing the devices. The console will come with a controller (which has the traditional thumbsticks, D-pad, buttons, and triggers as well as a built-in touchpad), and additional controllers will be sold for $50. OUYA CDEo Julie Uhrman said, 'For the last year or two years all we’ve been hearing is that the consoles are dead. The reason is there isn’t new, innovative intellectual property. It’s expensive to develop on it. You’re seeing a major shift of games being developed on the television. Our viewpoint has always been that console gaming isn’t dead, the way we think about it hasn’t changed. We’re bringing the best screen and the best device to interact with that by creating a platform that is open.' There was a recent 'Game Jam' to create game prototypes for the console; you can browse the 166 entries."Link to Original Source

An anonymous reader writes "Google has recently announced changes to its image search. The search provides larger views of the images with direct links to the full-sized source image. Although this new layout is being praised by some for its beauty and intuitiveness, it has raised concerns amongst image copyright holders and webmasters. Large images can now easily be seen and downloaded directly from the Google image search results without sending visitors to the hosting website. Webmasters have expressed concerns about a decrease in traffic and an increase in bandwidth usage since this change was rolled out. Some have set up a petition requesting Google remove the direct links to the images."Link to Original Source

kkleiner writes "It has been known for some time that, during pregnancy, fetal cells end up circulating within the mother’s bloodstream. A relatively new discovery, however, is that these fetal cells don’t just remain in the blood stream they travel to organs such as the heart or brain and stay there. What’s fascinating about these fetal cells is that they resemble pluripotent stem cells – they have the ability to become heart or brain cells. What this means functionally is still uncertain. But the potential for these so-called fetal microchimeric cells to incorporate and actually help repair maternal tissue is a new and exciting area of medical research."Link to Original Source

Don't discount that as stupid. Most of what he said is true. Evolution makes you write code that works, not good or clean code, just code that works. The only time evolution comes into lay is when the code can't even compile.